August and September in the Garden

Time’s been rather short over the last few weeks and somehow or other I didn’t get around to an August garden update and indeed now I’m more than a tad late for Septembers!. So here goes for the last couple of months and a bit….

To tell you the truth it’s a bit of a jungle out there and I’m rather ashamed of the patch right now. As I said it’s been a very busy few weeks for me of school holidays, holidays to the UK, rentree back to school and the patch has unfortunately had to suffer with zero time for weeding, tidying, sowing or planting. There has however been a fair degree of harvesting with all my spare time energies being channelled into picking, cooking, preserving and freezing. Incase you missed it, here’s my Tomato Veg of the Month Round Up of recipes, and I really have been picking an enormous basket of tommies each and every day since the end of July!. And although they’re finally starting to slow down and die off there’s still a ridiculous amount out there.

Other than the tommies we’ve also been enjoying a glut of peppers and aubergines (and there’s happily been Ratatouille a plenty all summer, and lately another veggie favourite of mine Aubergine Parmigiana‘s – blog coming soon!).

Other stuff that’s fairing well despite the neglect are the chilies, I’ve only three plants this year but they’re constantly laden (and pleasingly firey!), I’ve several bags full in the freezer plus a few hanging around drying out. After a slow start the squash and pumpkins are all going great guns and I’ve started to pick a few butternutsfor risottos, pies and soups. I’ll be harvesting them all soon as we can’t be too far off the first frosts.

I’ve even pulled a few parsnips of late and they’re surprisingly sweet (and large!), a tad better than my disappointingly miniscule carrots anyway.

Titchy carrots and whopper parsnips!

Jacques playing with his trucks and carrots!

The goodies that have sadly finished since my last round up include the sweetcorn (now that was fantastic, so super sweet), cucumbers and unbelievably the courgettes (we’ve only one marrow left!). And the gorgeously sweet melons have been and gone too.

Do your hens have free run of the patch? Ours did when we first got them but they destroyed the few winter veggies we had so the patch was quickly fenced off! And they still spend all day parolling the perimeter

What a wonderful lot of veggies you’re growing, I’m feeling hungry reading your great blog! And have to admit slightly envious of those tomatoes and aubergines. My tomatoes have made a few tiny salads this year rather than lots of lovely ratatouille. And the one aubergine was highly prized! Andrea

Thanks Andrea. I have to admit we’re very lucky with the sunshine here which has no doubt helped most of the veggies, and earlier in the summer we had lots of rain and hot days which brought everything along great guns. I’m also reckoning our soil’s pretty good as we seem to have very plentiful peppers, aubergines and especially tomatoes compared to most of our neighbours. Louisa

Thanks Chris. This is only my second season of growing so I’m trying out pretty much everything really….and attempting to be veggie self sufficient too, though we won’t be covered through most of the winter. We have a lot of space though so are very lucky. I’ve raised all my plants from seeds. I’m a bit lazy on the watering and at best only give everything a good soak once a week if it’s not rained much. I’ve mulched most of the plants though so they should need less. A lot of hard work even so, especially with two very little children and a house to renovate!
Louisa